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The next generation of VR headsets will connect over a single USB-C cable

VirtualLink, a consortium of companies including AMD, NVIDIA, Oculus, Valve, and Microsoft, has just announced that the oodles of cables needed to connect VR headsets to PCs will soon be whittled down to a single USB-C connection. The new open industry standard is a big improvement on the system of multiple USBs and HDMIs that people use now to hook up devices like the Oculus Rift to their PC.

Not only will this cut down on clutter, but it will also bring PC-based VR to more people. Right now, these devices are limited to people using computers that can support multiple connectors. By using the new VirtualLink standard, VR can be bright to smaller devices — like light notebooks, tablets and smaller laptops — given they have a USB-C port that can deliver power and data over a single cable. It’s a smart move, given the recent rise of mobile and affordable VR headsets from companies like Oculus. And it’ll be a lot more usable than the VR backpack PC’s of years gone by.

VirtualLink says this new standard will only apply to net-gen hardware, so if you’re in the market for a VR headset today, you’ll still need to deal with a few extra cables.